Fraudulent Cures: The MMS (bleach) Treatment for Autism

When you are faced with having no assurances as to if your child will progress or regress, sometimes parents get desperate. Whether it is Autism or some other diagnosis; as parents we just want to make our children’s plights easier for them. The way some parents go about this can sometimes swing towards the extreme.

Advertisement

It’s well known that in the Autism community some things tend to lead to arguments. These arguments can be over whether to use a DAN doctor, if vaccines cause Autism or even debates surrounding whether looking for a cause is ethical. In the Autism community there are many hot button issues. It seems that in some cases no one can agree. Every now and then though something comes along that throws us all for a loop. Sometimes the treatments that parents choose send the rest of us into a panic. One such treatment is the Miracle Mineral Solution, or MMS.

This treatment is nothing but a fraud, in this author's opinion. A fraud that is hurting children and making one single man millions of dollars. The man is Mr. Jim Humble. Mr. Humble started a church out of the Dominican Republic that centers around this treatment. The Genesis II Church of Health and Healing holds seminars were parents or providers pay a fee to Mr. Humble in return for receiving “Health Minister Certificates” or “Doctors Certificates” in the MMS Protocol.

Per the church’s own website, they claim that “No one in the history of man has had as much ability to heal as many diseases with as much certainty. Medical doctors, for instance, will in their entire lifetime heal less people than one of our ministers will heal in one month. The doctor’s certificate is dependent upon some experience. Once a student or minister has healed 10 people we feel justified in issuing a Doctorate degree. Why wouldn’t we? No other healer anywhere on earth can do what the Genesis II Church Doctor or Minister can do.”

This church also doesn’t believe in vaccinations. Per the BBC, an organiser of the Genesis II Church conference described MMS as a "sacrament" that was "no different than the bread and wine given during a church service." They charge members a fee annually to be given access to medications and a card that they claim will prevent their children from being vaccinated. They also claim the card will protect their members from “any unwanted scans or health insurance mandated by human authority.”

If those statements don’t rise suspicions and concerns-they should. Not only does Mr. Humble claim that MMS will cure Autism, not treat-but cure, he also makes some quite substantial claims about it curing other incurable diseases. Wonder what else he says it will cure? It’s a long list of things.

The MMS Protocol
At the 2012 AutismOne conference Kerri Rivera, the founder of a “biomed-based Autism clinic in Latin America” told the audience about this controversial treatment for the first time. At the time she claimed to have cured 38 Autistic children in 20 months’ time. This claim got people talking. Most were instantly shocked and disgusted as she explained the actual requirements, others however were intrigued. MMS is 22.4-28 percent sodium chlorite in distilled water. It is normally then diluted in acidic juices such as orange juice. This causes the sodium chlorite to become unstable and in turn creates a solution called Chlorine Dioxide. It can be administered by injection, mouth, enema, or a combination of the three.

Don’t know what Chlorine Dioxide is? Well, it is characterized as being, “a potential bleach used for stripping textiles and in industrial water treatment.” Yes, you read that right. Some parents are treating their Autistic Children with the same thing that bleach uses to strip textiles. Chlorine Dioxide is also an oxidizer compound. These have the ability to react with and destroy other materials. Oxidation is the loss of electrons during a reaction by a molecule, atom or ion. When oxidation happens within the human body it causes damage to the cell membranes, including the DNA, cellular proteins, and lipids.

If you talk to people who have used this treatment you would be shocked at the way the described it. Many used phrases such as: “a day of torture” and said that “all hell broke loose.” Many even claimed to now have gastrointestinal issues now because of the protocol. There are many other listed side effects, some recognized by the church.

There have been many bogus cure and treatment claims suggested over the years, few have held the potential to cause such great harm as MMS does. There have been black box FDA warnings about it causing deaths, yet it is still used by some. While we learn more about Autism the prevalence numbers are not dropping. We still have no solid cause or treatment for it. This "treatment" has created a sad situation and put desperate people in the middle of it.

This brings up another point-is this child abuse? During an interview with the BBC, Fiona O'Leary, a mother of two autistic children, who is a "leading campaigner" against MMS warned: "This has been offered as a cure for Autism in 60 countries."What worries me is people normalizing this treatment - it does not even warrant the word treatment, Autism is not a 'disease' that you can 'cure' with bleach. We need legislation so that people offering it are always prosecuted, but we don't see the authorities addressing this issue...The suffering children are going through is shocking - it's child abuse."